


Tastes Like June

by Omegatits



Series: A Symphony So Sweet [3]
Category: ONEUS (Band), ONEWE (Band)
Genre: Demon AU, Demon Keonhee, Gun Violence, Human Seoho, No Smut, Other, Violence, gun use, mentions of cannibalism, no actual cannibalism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:41:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28023384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omegatits/pseuds/Omegatits
Summary: Seoho wasn’t raised with religion. Most of the people he grew up around felt the same. If any of them did have feelings before, their change of lifestyle uprooted a lot of how they believed and practiced in their faiths. Still, knowing the sentiment that buildings like this church held before the war makes Seoho’s skin crawl with an unease. Would he burst into flames at the first step inside a church? What would happen to Keonhee? None of these worries were rational - as they’d walked into many churches together in their time as a team - however, they were still an itch in the back of Seoho’s mind.“Let’s hurry up,” he mumbles, ushering Keonhee inside.Keonhee teases, “Aww, is the statue too spooky for the big bad demon killer?” It earns him a shove from Seoho.
Relationships: Lee Keonhee/Lee Seoho
Series: A Symphony So Sweet [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1622584
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Tastes Like June

**Author's Note:**

> Here is a glimpse at Seoho and Keonhee's relationship and dynamic with each other within this verse. It's not critical for you to read the previous additions, however, they will bring a little more light to the world state and what the verse is like. In addition, this oneshot will give context to the coming chapters of Placated Cacophony.

Seoho stumbles into the room and places both heavy trays of food on the shared desk in the space. Keonhee is still snoring in bed with no signs of waking up, despite Seoho’s wandering an hour before. However, with the food now in their room, Seoho watches quietly as Keonhee’s nose twitches and he groans. 

“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bacey,” he hums to the demon, and smiles when Keonhee mouths at nothing but the smell of food. 

“Mmmm,” Keonhee groans, eyes blinking slowly as he sits up in bed. “You got breakfast?”

“Mhm, so get up,” Seoho mumbles, taking a seat next to his drowsy companion. Keonhee leans forward and rubs his cheek against Seoho’s shoulder. “We gotta get a move on before Hwanwoong realizes we’re still here.” 

  
The drive to the town is a long one, easily several hours away, but it’s not the worst. It’s dingy and tucked away in the rubble of a town that was not much larger than it currently is. Before the invasion a place like this was a coveted small town for people with the money to invade with their presence. Vacation homes, small town ‘vibes’. Things Seoho wasn’t ever lucky enough to know. But now, after the invasion - after the demons ravaged their realm and took no prisoners - a place like this was a death sentence. Tucked away, yes, but no one was able to save places like this. Lives were lost before troops could make it this far out. 

The Mayor, a short man with wrinkles and age obvious through his hunched body, meets them outside the city hall building. It was just as small and dingy as the rest of the town - nothing special… Nothing about this town was special outside of the sudden surplus of demons coming out of the area. Seoho supposes that… maybe that is something special, however, that is definitely not a drawing point. 

“Welcome gentlemen. You came so quickly, we appreciate it here,” the Mayor says, voice shaking and rough. 

Keonhee stands back behind Seoho. When dealing with humans, they’ve found that the presence of demon’s like Keonhee don’t do much to quell nervousness from the humans they help. Even with Seoho’s rifle hanging over his shoulder, Keonhee’s presence is the thing that makes them watch over their shoulders, so he stands back. 

“The commander said you are having a demon problem.”

The man nods and gestures out to the treeline a few miles away. “Just on the edge of town there is a church. We’ve had people visit the space and disappear, so, we only assume it’s demons.”

“What if it's a bear?” Keonhee snorts - Seoho doesn’t correct him, but also does not make his similar question known. 

“Bears would leave remains. Nothing is found of the people that go missing there,” he explains. “There is a bunker beneath the church as well. It was a place we used in the initial invasion. There are supplies we need access to inside, however, without knowing the source of the monsters, I can’t send anymore people there.”

Seoho bounces his shoulders, readjusting the weight of the rifle on his back. It draws in the attention of the Mayor, who watches Seoho clench his fists. The leather of his gloves creaks loudly in the silence. Civilians, even though Seoho shares an aspect of humanity with them, make him uncomfortable. Everything he and Keonhee do is under careful watch - including a simple adjustment of the weight he carries. “We’ll check it out immediately. If you’ll point our driver in the direction of our place to sleep - and inform him that we will meet him there after we do some recon.” 

The Mayor nods and hurries over to the drivers side of their vehicle, and the team begin their walk back to the edge of town. 

Seoho doesn’t have to look to know Keonhee’s relaxed the second they get out of earshot from the Mayor. The demon walks closer - reaching out to place a hand on Seoho’s shoulder. “Still not convinced it’s not just a bear.” 

Seoho wasn’t raised with religion. Most of the people he grew up around felt the same. If any of them did have feelings before, their change of lifestyle uprooted a lot of how they believed and practiced in their faiths. Still, knowing the sentiment that buildings like this church held before the war makes Seoho’s skin crawl with an unease. Would he burst into flames at the first step inside a church? What would happen to Keonhee? None of these worries were rational - as they’d walked into many churches together in their time as a team - however, they were still an itch in the back of Seoho’s mind. 

This church in particular, holds an air to it that Seoho felt like he needed to watch his back. Placed out in the front of the double doors is a broken statue of an angel. Half of the Angels face is missing - laying in crumbles at the statues feet - as if it had been shot. A likely outcome had soldiers at some point been to this town. The unsettling part was only its face held bullet holes, and despite those holes, the remaining eye of the angel was intact. And, Seoho swore it was watching them. 

“Let’s hurry up,” he mumbles, ushering Keonhee inside and away from the statue’s line of sight. Still he turns and looks over his shoulder, just to make sure the statue didn’t twist its head around to watch them. 

Keonhee teases, “Aww, is the statue too spooky for the big bad demon killer?” It earns him a shove from Seoho. 

“I just don’t care to sit in a place like this… Don’t you get unsettled?” He’d like to confirm this with Keonhee’s emotions giving the demon away, but the question brings nothing forward, and Seoho is left knowing the answer before Keonhee even answers. 

“No? Why would I be? It’s a building. You do know where I came from, right?” Keonhee teases - Seoho just rolls his eyes back. 

The two walked through flipped and broken pews looking around the main room. Shattered glass sat on the floor around exposed windows, where boarded windows stayed mostly intact. It was clear the building hasn’t been used at all since the initial invasion. Further proof to Seoho that religion was different now to humanity. Off to one side of the building is a small hall - a couple bathrooms, and the stairs down to the bunker. 

Seoho stares down into the darkness - contemplating going down. There is a hint of a pungent smell, not like death, but like rotten food. “Can you hear anything?” Keonhee shakes his head and looks down into the darkness. The two wait in silence for each other to take the first step, but when Keonhee doesn’t take it, Seoho huffs and flips his rifle over his shoulder to hold it properly. It’s not one he uses for close range - the gun is just not built for it - however, facing a dark unknown, the rifle made him feel safer than any pistol. 

He takes the first step into the darkness. The stairs creak from disuse under his weight. Then the second, and the third steps. He gets halfway down the stairs before he hears Keonhee behind him, “Oh. Here it is,” and the lights flicker on. Seoho lets out a howling scream as the stairwell lights up revealing the entrance to the bunker. And, with very little restraint, he manages not to fire his gun off into the empty stairwell. 

Keonhee, fighting his own fight or flight, begins screaming as well, scrambling to get to Seoho’s side to see what his partner is yelling at. And when he sees nothing but the closed door of the bunker, he gives the man a hard shove down the stairs. “You jackass!”

Barreling down the stairs, Seoho slams into the bunker door, and groans at the impact of his chest on the metal. “Don’t PUSH ME!” he shouts back at Keonhee. 

“Don’t scream like you’re being murdered!” Keonhee yells back. “After this, I’m going to tell Harin to switch with me. Geonhak wouldn’t be afraid of walking down stairs!” It’s an empty threat. 

Seoho mouths and mimics Keonhee complaining as he opens the bunker door to, again, darkness and a stronger rotting scent. “The batty old guy couldn’t warn us ahead of time to bring fucking flashlights?” Seoho mumbles as he steps into the darkness. 

Before he gets two steps inside the bunker, Keonhee’s hand reaches out and grips Seoho’s uniform. “Wait…” he whispers. His tone sets off warning bells in Seoho’s mind, and he grips his rifle a little tighter. There is a hint of possessiveness Seoho feels in his chest - Keonhee’s emotions facing the darkness. And, even in the dark, he can see how tightly slitted Keonhee’s eyes are as he looks on into the room. “There’s something here… Let me find the light,” he whispers softly and pulls Seoho back into the stairwell. 

The demon slips into the darkness on his own - Seoho waits quietly. And, once the lights flicker on, Seoho can feel Keonhee’s dread even heavier. “Seoho.”

He can see it without needing to enter the vast room. The bunker is easily twice as large as the church itself, and it has doors to offshoots, most of them barricaded with rocks and caved in rumble. But that’s not what is troublesome. It’s the black bubbling pool in the center of the main room. 

“What the fuck-”

“A portal…” Keonhee mumbles. 

“Are you sure?” Seoho asks, approaching the pool slowly. He can’t see into it at all. The pitch black liquid doesn’t even reflect seoho’s image. 

“Well, I could be wrong, but i’m not about to test it out.” 

“Toss a rock in it.” 

Keonhee brings a small pebble to the pool's edge and tosses it in. It falls in without a sound, and doesn’t return. A portal. 

“Sssshit,” Seoho hisses, dropping his rifle. “Alright, guess we got something out of this recon.” He points to the few doors unblocked by rumble. “We should check in these few rooms too, just to make sure there are no stragglers. And then we can head back.”

“This is gonna mean paperwork,” Keonhee huffs, walking around the portal to one of the doors. 

As they go through each of the rooms, there are no demons in any of them. Something odd with the portal being right there. A dark hole with an open world to sneak out into should be an easy spot for the monsters to crawl out of, however it looks like not a single monster has stepped foot into the bunker. 

The final room is full of books and one small statue that was the exact same as the angel outside. However, this one was no bigger than a book. The angel’s gaze still sends shivers down Seoho’s spine. Avoiding the angel’s gaze, Seoho begins rummaging through the texts, looking for anything that stuck out or could be a good thing to bring back to the compound. And much to Seoho’s fear and unease, Kenohee approaches the statue.

“I can’t believe a little statue like this freaks you out,” Keonhee jokes, and picks the statue up. 

“It’s not just the statue. It’s the concept of it. The meaning behind it… Plus it’s just… Staring at you. How creepy is that,” Seoho half explains as he stacks up a couple books.

When Keonhee never responds, Seoho looks to the demon, watches carefully as Keonhee’s eyes slit up while looking at the statue. A sign that Keonhee was… feeling something. However, Seoho couldn’t pick up whatever Keonhee was experiencing. “Hey,” Seoho calls out, pulling Keonhee from his staring match with the statue. “You good?”

Keonhee opens his mouth, only for their attention to be pulled back out to the main room of the bunker where a bubbling sound is growing. Seoho runs out into the room and halts to a stop as a slob drags itself out of the portal.

“Keonhee!” Seoho calls out behind him, and quickly glances back to see the demon staring directly at the slob, still seemingly in a trance. Another groan pulls Seoho’s eyes back to the portal as another inky black tentacle comes from the portal after the first slug-like slob. Seoho cocks his rifle, holding it low before he fires into the first slob’s body. It’s body explodes around the bullet, and the bullet ends up in the wall just behind it. But, in the expulsion of its body, it revealed a tiny red crystal inside it’s head. He quickly turns back to face Keonhee, snapping, “Feel like fucking helping?!”

Keonhee looks at Seoho - eyes still slitted. Seoho still can’t feel anything from his partner. Not even his usual rush of adrenaline when facing another demon. He’s trying to make sense of what’s going on with his partner, when the demon grins, revealing sharp battle ready rows of teeth. 

_“Ahh mgep h' nafl ymg' mgeplllln'gha mg,”**_ Keonhee hisses out, tongue moving in a language that’s hard for Seoho to even listen too, let alone understand. But he understands its intentions. That’s not Keonhee. 

Seoho, in a panic, quickly swings the butt of his gun out and slams it into Keonhee’s face. It rocks the demon off his feet, and gives Seoho just enough time to run back into the room of books and slam the door shut behind himself. Quickly, he pulls a pile of books from the shelves and shoves them in front of the door to give himself a few seconds of protection. Something about that statue was what was setting Keonhee off. It wasn’t until he had touched it that things got weird. And while he hates the thought of touching it himself, he needs to figure out what happened. 

Seoho grabs the statue firmly, and just as he does, his field of vision is sucked away. When his head is no longer swimming, he’s looking up at his own face… His own, huge face. 

“You stupid sonofabitch,” His body says - and Seoho watches it from outside himself. And it clicks. He’s in the statue. 

Just outside the door Keonhee hisses something again in something Seoho doesn’t understand. And Seoho’s body flips around to look back at the door. “Shit, shit, shit,” Seoho’s body says, and then looks down at the statue. “Listen, I know you’re in the statue. I don’t know what the fuck was trapped in there, but I… I think we just need to get him to touch it again.” 

Which would be a great idea, if Seoho wasn’t currently trapped in the statue himself. And ask loudly as he screams, “Keonhee, don’t give him the statue with me in it!” his voice never reaches outside the statue. So, to his horror, when the door opens, and Keonhee faces Keonhee, the man tosses the statue at his body. The body instinctively catches it before it crashes into his face, and in seconds Seoho is staring at his body from a different angle, yet again. 

“You dumbass!” He shouts from Keonhee’s body. 

Keonhee gasps and points to the statue, “I just saved your life!” 

“We’re in the wrong fucking bodies!” 

Keonhee pauses, squints at his own body from within Seoho’s, and then groans. “Well…. I don’t know how to switch us back!” 

“The statue!” 

Behind them the two slobs gurgle and hiss as their bodies slide with ease towards Seoho and Keonhee. Seoho, feeling an urge to bare his new teeth, bares them at the slobs. 

“Here, toss it to me,” Keonhee says, and Seoho tosses the statue back. And, as expected, when Keonhee grabs it, his body’s deminore changes again. The demon inside his body laughs, “You’re a foolish bunch of creatures. All I have to do is break this measly thing now, and your little friend will be trapped inside fore-” 

Seoho stops his body mid explanation by launching himself at the demon - his body. It’s much weaker than Keonhee’s and while he knows it’ll hurt later, it gives him a shot to pin his body down. In the tussle, Seoho grips the statue, and is again sucked into its little form. 

Keonhee, now in his own body again, raises the statue over his head and hisses at Seoho’s body. “I may not be the smartest, but at least I don’t monologue.” And then he shoves the statue into Seoho’s face, returning Seoho back to his own body. 

“Okay! Okay! Ow!” Seoho shouts, until Keonhee stops pushing the statue’s base into the center of his face. When the demon realizes it’s Seoho once again, he drops the statue beside them both and pulls him into a tight hug. 

“Okay! I get it now! Statues are the creepiest things ever! I’ll never touch one again!” He cries. 

With a wince from the tackle he put himself through, and Keonhee’s excitement, Seoho’s body aches. “Keonhee, let go,” he whines. The demon does. A warmth bubbles into his chest - Keonhee’s excitement. Just as it should. 

Their moment is interrupted by a warmth wrapping itself around Keonhee’s ankle and dragging him off Seoho. The slobs raise Keonhee up above their heads and out of their slime slug bodies, teeth bubble up into their forms. 

From his spot on the ground, Seoho raises his rifle and aims it at the slob’s head again where he knows he saw the crystal before and fires. And, just like before the body explodes around the bullet, however, the crystal is no longer there. As it’s form bubbles up again, Keonhee raises up to his ankles with thick black claws and swipes at the slime surrounding his feet. He’s dropped from the air, and like a cat, he flips himself to his feet before landing on the floor. 

“Doesn’t look like it’s gonna be as easy as a bullet.”

“There is a power source inside them, just like the gun. But, their bodies are so fluid I think it’s just floating around.” 

“So i just gotta find the crystal?”

“Please.”

With Seoho’s permission, Keonhee hunches over, spine cracking under his skin. His body bursts through the seams of his uniform, and black ichor crawls up his arms, forming a thick black armor over his arms. Another loud crack and Keonhee’s mouth breaks and elongates to make room for the teeth that grow through his gums. 

“You boys hungry?” Keonhee asks, voice teetering into painful hissing for Seoho to listen to, like when the other thing was in Keonhee’s body. 

“Fucking shread them.”

He leaps onto the closest slob and sinks his teeth and claws into its jelly like body. With a quick pull, the black slime is ripped from its form and Keonhee tosses it away. A swipe of his massive hands knocks another chunk of the slob from its body and toward the first chunk dragging its formless self back to its body. The second swipe Seoho catches a glimpse of red, and from his position on the ground, lifts his gun to aim. Warmth pools into his fingers as he watches, waiting for the perfect moment - the crystals on the rifle light up with a similar redness to the slob’s crystals. Keonhee pulls another mouthful of the slime free and that’s when he takes the shot, aiming perfectly for the crystal. 

The magic embedded into the bullet shatters the crystal in the first shot. Black ichor explodes from the slob - the force of it shooting Keonhee into a weak wall of the bunker. With the force of his body, the wood lets out a sickening crack. 

“Shit, we gotta hurry this up!” Seoho shouts. Keonhee, drenched in the now mindless remains of the first slob, launches himself into the body of the second slob. 

Just like with the first, the demon thrashes through its body until Seoho is able to get a clear shot of the crystal. However this one seems to have understood what happened with the first slob, and when Seoho takes his first shot, the slob’s body sinks into the floor of the bunker, dragging Keonhee with it. The bullet is fired into another, very weak wall, and all around them the bunker creaks and groans. 

“Keonhee,” Seoho shouts to his partner. The demon, eyes glowing and maw stained black, looks up from the slob to Seoho. He doesn’t have to speak for Seoho to feel the concern and worry flooding him from Keonhee. “Fuck the thing, we need to get out of here.”

He pushes himself off the monster and scrambles to Seoho’s side, and helps him stand. The aching in his back is stabbing when he’s up on his feet, but they have no other means of getting out. Keonhee carefully helps Seoho run towards the door of the bunker as the dirt above them falls in little pebbles - warning them of the coming danger. Just as they break through the entrance, the walls collapse under the weight of the ground above, and the bunker caves in around everything - the statue, the slob, and the portal. 

Keonhee helps Seoho up the stairs, and both scramble to get outside as the church groans around them. They continue to run until a safe distance from the church as the foundation beneath it sinks. The space from the bunker no doubt is sucked through the portal, until nothing else can get through it, and it leaves nothing to support the building above it. In a mild horror, they watch the building crack and collapse into the earth. 

When the dust settles, and the air clears, Seoho looks at the building and hisses, “What it deserves… Fucking cursed building.” Keonhee bumps his hip into Seoho in a scold, only for it to knock him a little too hard. Seoho screams and digs his nails into Keonhee’s shoulder as the back of his ribs digs deeper in a painful squeeze around his middle. “Bitch!”

**Author's Note:**

> **What power he has to withstand this hunger for your flesh
> 
> As usual, comments and kudos are welcome~ If you'd like to learn more about this verse and others feel free to reach out to me on twitter :)


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